Search for O.C.-Bound Plane Scaled Back

The Civil Air Patrol on Tuesday scaled back its search for five people whose plane disappeared between Bullhead City, Ariz., and Orange County but were checking numerous leads, authorities said.

Only nine planes, manned by volunteer pilots and observers, continued to scour the rugged countryside between Bullhead City and San Bernardino, Civil Air Patrol Lt. Col Bob Fowler said.

But by Tuesday afternoon, there was still no sign of the red-and-white twin-engine Cessna Skymaster that was reported missing Thursday, Fowler said. All four passengers are from Orange County.

Authorities said the plane, piloted by Richard Niemela, 27, of La Mirada, left Fullerton Municipal Airport on Wednesday night. It disappeared on the group’s flight home after a gambling trip to Laughlin, Nev.

In the plane with Niemela were Kathy Bird, 33, of Fullerton; her husband, Jeff Bird, 32; Bradley Bird, 33, of Placentia, Jeff’s brother, and Natalie Erickson, 19, of Placentia, authorities said.

The group spent the night in Laughlin, and were expected to return Thursday. Relatives of the missing passengers called police when the plane failed to show up.

Fowler said that over the weekend, more than 60 pilots searched the desert for the small plane.

During the rest of this week, only nine volunteer pilots are expected to continue the search, he said. They are scheduled to fly daily runs along two corridors which are considered Niemela’s favorite and most traveled flight paths, Fowler said.

Fowler also said that investigators were checking several tips from the public, such as reports of low-flying planes in the general area. But so far, he added, no leads have turned up clues to the plane’s whereabouts.

“We are just going through every lead we can,” Fowler said. “We are doing the maximum effort.”

Aside from flying along the two flight paths, Fowler said Civil Air Patrol pilots were flying along a series of large grids, hoping to cover every square mile between Bullhead City and San Bernardino.

Fowlers said that the search has been hampered not only by foul weather but by a lack of a distress signal, normally triggered in aircraft when they crash.

If the plane crashed, the signal would have automatically triggered, Fowler said. That leaves searchers to speculate that either the plane did not crash, the crash demolished the transmitter or the batteries were too low to emit a signal.

In any case, Fowler said, “all it proves is that there’s not sound.”